


chapter 6 : cantina brawls

by rogueonestan



Series: When Our Paths Cross [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Aftercare, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fights, Fist Fights, Fluff and Angst, Mayhaps, Non-Graphic Violence, but like not sexual, canon violence, friends to lovers au, mainly that theres blood and stuff, soft, uh oh we have conflict
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 07:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30001044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rogueonestan/pseuds/rogueonestan
Summary: you thought you found a safe haven on the deserted planet of Gopani, but little do you and the Mandalorian know, you just walked into a death trap when you entered the local cantina.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Original Female Character(s), Din Djarin/Reader, Din Djarin/You, Grogu & Din Djarin, grogu & the mandalorian, grogu &r reader, the mandalorian/ reader
Series: When Our Paths Cross [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138634
Kudos: 3





	chapter 6 : cantina brawls

But the next words that fall out of the man’s mouth are what make your heart drop in the pit of your stomach.  
“You know, there’s a pretty large bounty on your head.”  
“Considering what a pretty one you are.”  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You try to convince them but it doesn’t work.  
The two men only look at each other and laugh at you in response.  
“Oh, please, word on the street is a Mandalorian and his partner, someone who looks as fine as you, went rogue and betrayed the Guild.”  
“Kriff.” You say underneath your breath.  
You didn’t expect word about the events on Nevarro to travel so quickly. You thought that you would be safe temporarily by being a planet or two over from Nevarro, but you were wrong. You need to find Mando and get out of here.  
But just then, the Twi’lek reaches in his front pocket and places a bounty puck on the tabletop where it displays your face and name, along with the very high price that’s now on your head.  
“We can do this the easy way-” The Twi’lek begins.  
“-or the hard way.” The other finishes.  
As you take in another deep breath, your eyes search around the busy cantina and see Mando is on the other side of the cantina and finishing up a conversation with a local. He slowly makes his way back to you when you motion towards the door.  
You want to cause as least amount of trouble for the locals as possible, trying to make this altercation as peaceful as you can. But you had to know that Mando wouldn’t just listen and leave you all alone.  
“Can I help you?” You’ve never felt so relieved, yet nervous, to hear his voice. On one hand, you’re glad that you have your partner by your side but you also know he’s not one to shy away from violence.  
“Well, would you look at that? We’re going to be rich, brother.” The man on your right says as he inches his way closer to Mando.  
You can’t help but let out a scoff.  
“Something funny?”  
“That you actually think you’ll be able to take us both in.”  
The man that once towered over you tries to make his way over to you, but Mando uses his body as a personal shield as your body easily hides behind him. His hand hovers over his blaster holster, ready to defend himself, but you can’t risk innocent lives to be at stake in exchange for your own safety.  
“Not here.” You whisper just loud enough for your partner to hear.  
“Maybe we should take this outside, brother.” The Twi’lek suggests to his partner, who takes notice of all of the attention you’ve managed to grab in the span of a minute.  
“No. No, we’ve got them right where we want them. We can kill them here and be done with it.”  
“The bounty said to bring them in alive.”  
“And if we bring in their bodies, we’ll be legendary.”  
What a hero.  
Mando’s visor silently asks what your next move is when he glances at you, in which you motion your head towards the cantina enterance. You need to make sure there are no unnecessary casualties.  
And Mando understands completely because he takes your hand in his and dashes out of the cantina, but not before knocking one of the men on the floor.  
“Get up, you fool, they’re getting away!”  
With the pram following right behind as you dash through the town, you glance over your shoulder and see the men are quick on your tail.  
“What are we going to do?!” You ask.  
“Turn here!” He says quickly as he tugs on your wrist as he pulls you in an alleyway.  
Panting, you try to think of what to do next, but by the time you’re on a brink of a plan, the two men have caught up to you in no time and have trapped you.  
“Going somewhere?” The man asks as both men point their blasters at you and your partner.  
You know that now a fight is inevitable at this point. Both you and your partner glance at each other at the same time, it’s almost as if you can read each other’s thoughts because you both ready yourselves for the upcoming confrontation.  
“Any last words?”  
“No.” You respond honestly.  
The man now aims his blaster at you, ready to fire. Before he’s able to do so, Mando uses the grappling hook from his vambrace, effectively wrapping itself around the cocky man's ankle. With a quick flick of the wrist, the man lands harshly against the sandy ground. Dust swarms in the air as the man tries to get back up, only to have Mando tug on the rope very harshly. The sight itself brings a slight chuckle out of you after the whole ordeal you just experienced with him.  
The Twi’lek looks to his right out of surprise. Seeing this, you quickly crouch down to grab the vibroknife that’s hidden inside of your boot.  
The knife is quickly released from your grip as it flies in the direction of the Twi’lek, who lets out a blood curdling scream as the weapon is secure in his bicep. Glancing down at his arm, he sees how blood not only covers the blade but is now dripping on the floor beneath him. The color of  
his blood paints the dull color of sand. With a vice tight grip on the blade, the Twi’lek lets out a deep growl as he angrily throws the knife to the ground. When he looks back up at you, there’s a flame in his eyes, almost like he’s shooting daggers at you. As he grits his teeth, he moves to lunge towards you but is interrupted when his partner lets out a low groan.  
His partner attempts to get up from the floor, but Mando yanks on the rope yet again, forcing the man to be at his complete mercy.  
“Get her!” He shouts at his partner as he continues to flail on the ground.  
The Twi’lek immediately charges at you as he lets out a scream. You immediately take a few steps back in response to his sudden lunge. Back at the cantina you knew that you shouldn’t underestimate the Twi’lek based on his size and you know this now. The Twi’lek takes his blaster out of his holster to aim at you, but before he’s able to do so, one of your hands tightly grips his wrist. Another scream is heard in the alleyway, you’re not sure who it’s from, but it’s loud enough to alert the locals of what’s happening. As you glance in the direction of the town and you find that a few of the townsfolk decided to investigate what the commotion is all about but luckily they’re keeping their distance.  
So much for making things peaceful.  
The tighter you grasp the man’s wrist, the louder his screams seem to get. You twist his wrist counter-clockwise and as you twist it further and further, the more he continues to scream. You would’ve thought the man would do something more to fight back instead of screaming repeatedly. Maybe do something to stop you from getting the upper hand. Thrash around a little, throw a punch or two, kick you, anything.  
How did he even get in the Guild?  
You’ve fought banthas with more skills than the man in front of you.  
The pain in his wrist becomes so unbearable that he’s forced to release his grip on his blaster. The blaster clatters to the ground with a soft thud.  
Taking a knee to his stomach, the man doubles over in pain. Once you release your grip on his wrist, both of his hands go to his stomach to somehow relieve the pain you’ve inflicted on him. But it’s no use because the sole of your boot adds even more pressure to the injured area as he’s pushed against the wall that’s behind him.  
His head hits against the harsh surface with great force. He lets out another groan as he tries to focus on your figure but all he can see are blurry dots. The next thing the man can feel are a few blows to the face. But when you go throw another one, the Twi’lek has a very tight grip on your wrist, so tight that you end up letting out a yelp in response.  
You’re suddenly knocked down to the ground when the man trips you. A soft groan leaves your lips after your head bounces off of the ground after you fell. Grains of sand are in your mouth. The dust from the sand temporarily blinds your vision. And much like you did to the Twi’lek, he uses this to his advantage. You blink a few times to make your vision clearer and the first thing you see is the Twi’lek is now hovering over you with a devilish smirk on his face. He raises his boot to stomp on you but luckily your fast reflexes allow you to move out of the way just in time. He tries to do this a few times but you manage to avoid his attacks. Every time he misses, he grows more agitated.  
A frustrated scream leaves his lips, “stop moving!” He hisses at you.  
The man hovering over you doesn’t move for a few moments, so you use this to your advantage by grabbing for the blaster that lays by your side. Unfortunately your reflexes aren’t fast enough as the bottom of the Twi’lek’s boot collides with your wrist. Your fingers are only a few inches away from your weapon. The pressure on your wrist is almost as unbearable as his previous grip. A blood curdling scream like you’ve never heard before leaves your lips as his boot only adds more pressure. As you look up at him, you see that the grin on his face has only gotten bigger when he sees the painful expression on your face.  
Your nose scrunches up in anger at him, a low growl escaping from your lips. Your foot collides with his back as you lift it up with a great force. With the amount of pain you’re feeling in the moment, it takes a lot out of you just to kick him. But luckily it works when the Twi’lek man falls face first as you quickly turn to avoid his body colliding with yours.  
As you quickly turn on your side, you feel something underneath your rib cage. As you glance down, you find the vibroknife you threw earlier. With a slight smirk on your face, you tightly grasp it, hiding your hand behind your back. You get up on one knee for balance, but little do you know, the Twi’lek is doing the exact same as a vibroknife also resides in his fist. The two of you both reach your arms out to protect yourselves from the other.  
The Twi’lek is the first to lunge an attack, where you’re able to easily dodge it thanks to the metal gauntlets that live on your forearms, similar to the ones your Mandalorian partner has. You swing in the Twi’lek’s direction where your vibroknife lightly grazes across his bicep. More blood continues to drip down his arm from the two times you effectively hit him.  
This angers the man in front of you quite a bit. In retaliation, he hurls his body at you. Your head hits against the ground once again, but this time his body straddles yours. You try to push him off but to no avail. His knife collides with your skin as the blade cuts the skin deeply. Another scream leaves your lips as your arm matches your opponent’s as blood is now dripping down both of your arms.  
When you glance over at Mando for the first time since the fight began, you find that the man who wouldn’t stop harassing you is now littered in blood and bruises all thanks to your partner. Mando currently has the pulse rifle in his grip as he uses it against his enemy. With the few seconds you looked over at him, you saw that Mando used the butt of his weapon to hit the man’s stomach, making him bend over in pain.  
“You’re a feisty one.” The man hovering over you says. With his grasp on his knife as tight as ever, his free hand goes to grasp your throat.  
The hand that is gripping the knife slowly grazes the skin of bicep, at a pace so slow that the pain easily overcomes your senses. If the grip around your throat wasn’t so tight, you would’ve screamed as loud as you could. The grip around your throat makes every breath harder to take.  
You gasp for air in response, your hand covering his to try to make him stop- a vain attempt. His hand only gets tighter and tighter around your neck. You try to wiggle your way out of his grasp but the strength quickly leaves your body.  
You take in a deep breath and grasp the knife in your fist and take a swing at his collarbone. Blood from the cut immediately drops on your face as his grasp on your neck slowly begins to loosen. You take aimless swings at him, just hoping that you can cause him enough pain that he’ll let you go.  
You eventually grasp your free hand on his bicep to support yourself and as you lean forward, your knife slices the skin right above his collarbones. Endless streams of blood escape his body as he desperately gasps for air. The hand that’s used to be gripping your throat now grips his own. His knife clatters to the ground as you gasp for air.  
It’s finally over.  
“Are you okay?” You hear a voice ask.  
You immediately defend yourself at the sudden sound coming from behind you with your knife but quickly let your guard down when you see who it is.  
“Yeah, I’m fine.” You reply as one of Mando’s hands gently applies pressure to the area where you got cut, his thumb lightly grazing the area.  
A hiss immediately leaves your lips by the light pressure that’s put on your wound.  
“You’re hurt.” Mando mumbleds out, maybe he’s saying it more to himself than to you.  
“That tends to happen in a fight.”  
You try to play off the amount of pain that you’re currently experiencing, not wanting to worry your partner anymore than he already is. But somehow Mando is able to see right through your lie. You don’t know how but he’s always been able to know whenever you lie to him- it’s not often that you do, usually in circumstances like the one you’re currently in, but he’s one of the few people that you can’t fool. His visor looks down at you with a slight tilt as a heavy sigh leaves his lips, clearly upset with you.  
“Sorry,” you mutter out, “I’ll be fine until we make it back to the ship.”  
To prove it to him, you try to lift your body off from the ground, only to let out a pained groan through gritted teeth. Even using your uninjured arm takes a lot of the strength that you have left after the fight. You slump against the nearby wall out of defeat.  
“You need to rest.” Mando tells you as his light yet firm grip on the shoulder of your injured arm keeps you in place before you try to move again.  
“We need to leave before more hunters find us.”  
“Not before you’re healed.”  
“I’ll be fine-“  
If two hunters were able to recognize and locate you within the three of you being here for a few minutes, then who knows how many more may be on the hunt for you and how close they are. You need to be on the move as fast as possible, not stopping for a minor injury you got in an altercation.  
Mando only says your name in response of your continued stubbornness, along with a soft ‘please.’  
Some of his mannerisms must have rubbed off on you recently because a deep sigh escapes your lips as you slightly nod at him in response. Sometimes his stubborn nature is as worse as yours.  
“Vor entye.” Thank you.  
Hearing the language of his people rolling off the tip of his tongue seamlessly always astonishes you. It’s not often that you hear it, usually it’s muttered underneath his breath, but hearing it always fascinates you. You may not know a lot about his culture, but just hearing him speaking the language of his people is one of the subtle signs that Mando has shown that he trusts you without him outright saying it, by showing you a part of himself that he hasn’t shown to anyone else in a long time.  
The feeling of slight pressure on your wound gets your attention back. Instead of seeing blood drip down your arm when you glance down at your injury, you see that Mando’s gloved thumb is gently caressing the area, similar to a way a mother examines an injury that’s on their child. Such kindness in such a small action.  
As you look back at his visor, his complete attention is on the minor injury that you got and he seems to be in some sort of trance. Maybe he’s lost in his own thoughts. Maybe he’s thinking of a way of how you can be healed quickly so you can get back to the Crest. Something must have caught his attention because his actions have stayed the same within the past minute or two: his thumb continually gently grazing the area where blood continues to coat your skin.  
All of the adrenaline from the fight no longer runs through your veins as the pain from your wound increases with each passing moment. If it weren’t for your partner’s light touch, the pain would be close to unbearable. But thanks to his soft touch, the continuing feeling of his leather-covered fingers brings a sense of comfort that you so desperately need at the moment. The wound on your bicep isn’t the worst that you’ve gotten, but the pain is still pretty intense.  
When your hand wraps around his wrist, his daze seems to be broken as his visor meets your gaze.  
“My bag,” You motion behind him as the item lays idle on the ground, somehow getting off of your person during the fight, “it has a medpac.”  
His hand drops contact with your arm as he turns away from you to find what you’re asking for. The flap of your bag is wide open as a few of its contents, mainly credits and basic necessities, have fallen out. One of the last remaining medpacs that you have can easily be seen. Mando grabs it with haste as his fingers quickly open up the packaging. While he’s doing this, you quickly look over your shoulder to make sure that you haven’t grabbed anyone else’s attention.  
You need to get out of here as soon as possible.  
The sensation of the medpac being carefully applied to your skin gathers your attention back to your partner again. You’ve never seen, never experienced, a medpac being applied like this to you before. Usually you just slap it on after a fight but never with the tenderness that your partner is exhibiting. You’ve never seen him show this side of him to you before. He doesn’t even show himself this kindness. He uses an electrical engineering tool to heal his wounds, never proper medication. As his fingers lightly graze around your injured area, his application of the medication shows how much he truly cares for you. He may not show it in the most conventional ways, but Mando will always make sure that you have the proper care and attention that you deserve.  
His fingers continue to graze where the medpac is now placed- almost as if he doesn’t want his skin, albeit covered in a layer of leather, to part with yours. The slight pressure of his hand on your skin puts a small smile on your face. It’s not much, probably nothing to Mando, but him slowly showing you another side of himself means everything to you.  
Mando begins to shift from his kneeled position next to you to stand to his full height, his hand slowly beginning to part from your bicep, but before he’s able to do, your hand grasps his wrist for the second time since things began to calm down in the alleyway.  
“Thank you, Mando, for everything.”  
Mando only nods his helmet at you in response.  
That’s when his hand leaves your grasp. Your hand slowly releases its grip on his wrist when he returns to his full height. Right when he does, Mando presses one of the buttons on his vambrace to open the pram that has been lurking in the corner of the alleyway. From your angle, you find that Mando is reaching out the child inside to check on him.  
“How is he?”  
“He’s fine,” Mando says as he turns around to look at you, “asleep.”  
“That’s good.”  
When you try to get up from the floor for the second time by using your uninjured arm, but like before, Mando doesn’t let you. He quickly returns back to you, offering you a hand in support. You gladly accept it as your hand grasps at his vambrace as his hand grasps at the gauntlet that’s currently residing on your arms. Thanks to his great strength, you’re able to finally get up from the floor. With his grasp still lingering on you, his other hand meets your opposite arm as his helmet scans the rest of your body for any remaining injuries.  
“You alright?”  
“Yeah, I’m fine, but we should-“  
“Head back to the ship.” He finishes his sentence for you, “the sooner, the better.” You hum in agreement. With that, Mando quickly turns around to close the pram so that you two can leave this planet without being detected again.

The walk back to the Crest is surprisingly uneventful. You kept looking over your shoulder, rapidly checking to see if anyone was following you, all to find that your worries were for nothing. Even Mando wasn’t as uptight as you were- which is a surprise because usually the roles are reversed.  
The feeling of his hand on your shoulder gains your attention yet again, somehow he always knows the best time to get you out of your thoughts.  
“Relax. We’ll be okay.” A snicker falls from your lips, “what’s so funny?”  
“Nothing,” you respond, “it’s just, it’s usually the other way around. You’re the one who always worries too much.”  
Once the words leave your mouth, Mando stops dead in his tracks, saying nothing as he stares at you.  
“What? It’s true.” The silhouette of the Crest comes into view as you open your mouth to say some remark. But you just shake the thought from your head, “nevermind.” You say as you continue to walk the fast pace that you and Mando were walking before he abruptly stopped.  
Mando’s feet don’t move at first, but rather his visor does as it tilts in curiosity as he glances at your figure that gets smaller and smaller the further you get away from him. What were you going to say? Why hadn’t you said it? You were never one to shy away from your saying what was on your mind, so why was this any different?  
That doesn’t matter right now. What he needs to do at this very moment is to make sure all three of you make it safe to the Crest before any more dangerous threats come your way. You’ve already been through today enough as it is, with the two men at the cantina then getting injured in the confrontation. The three of you are safe for now and he needs to make sure he can keep it that way. He wouldn’t know what he would do if either you or the baby you just got rescued got harmed in any way, especially when he knows he has the responsibility to protect you both.  
“You coming?” You voice seems as if it’s a mile away but in reality it’s only a few feet away from Mando.  
He only nods as he follows your lead as you continue to head back to the Crest. 

Luckily it was only a few minutes when all three of you were able to seek refuge inside the ship.  
“What are we gonna do now?”  
“You rest, I’ll find us another system to go to.”  
You see no reason to fight with him. You’ll gladly take any rest that you can take.  
Before you even consider getting some rest, you open the child’s pram, only to find him fast asleep. A deep sigh leaves your lips in relief. You’re so grateful to the Maker that the little one didn’t have to experience any of that violence. You wouldn’t be able to forgive yourself if something happened to him.  
As you shut his pram closed, you turn around to go lay down but your reflection in the refresher’s mirror makes you stop dead in your tracks.  
The deadly grasp the Twi’lek had on your neck is already showing. Bruises of various shades of blue appear on the sides of your neck. You don’t even want to know what it’ll look like in the morning.  
You immediately walk closer to the mirror to get a better glance at it. Your fingers dance across your neck as you examine your wound.  
“How bad is it?” A deep voice from behind you asks.  
As you glance behind you, you find that Mando’s helmet is tilted in concern.  
“It’s not as bad as it looks.”  
Your name falls from his lips without thinking about it.  
It’s not often that you hear him say your first name without hesitation, let alone hearing it with his voice filled with concern- something that’s a rarity between the two of you. He usually just refers to you by your last name or ‘partner’, but in the moment, he just doesn’t care. Your safety is all that he cares about in the moment.  
You continue to examine your neck wound in the mirror and you see that your partner is no longer standing directly behind you, but rather is leaning up against the doorframe.  
“You need rest.”  
“So do you.” You say, “when was the last time you got any sleep?”  
He only shrugs in response.  
“You need more rest than I do. I’ll watch the kid and make sure we’re still on course.” You offer.  
“I’ll be fine.”  
“Mando, please? It’ll make me feel better if you do.”  
A sigh of defeat leaves his modulator, “fine.”  
“Thank you.” Taking the little one from his pram as gently as you can, you scoop him up in your arms and make your way to the place that you spend a majority of your time in.  
As he crawls in the room that you typically sleep in, he makes sure that the door shuts behind him before he takes off his helmet so he can finally rest. His hair sticks to the nape of his neck and forehead from the long day he’s had.  
It’s such an odd feeling for Din to be resting in a somewhat proper bed because he usually just falls asleep wherever, always making sure that you’re the one who gets to sleep as comfortably as possible.  
His bundled up cape acts as a makeshift pillow, but as he tries to fall asleep, events from today repeat in his mind. All he could see was red when he saw the two men harassing you or when you were screaming out in pain as you were trying to fight in your life. Seeing how vulnerable you were on the ground, gasping for air, just reminds him of how much harder he needs to work to protect you, and now the baby, from any harm.  
It’s one hell of a job but he’ll gladly do it if it means that you’ll be safe in his care. The faint scent of your shampoo enters his nostrils, thanks to the endless nights you’ve slept in here. Having the reminder that you’re still here, alive, is enough for Mando to finally rest his mind and get the much needed sleep he needs.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry for the late update. i was going to post the second half of this chapter only a day or two after i posted part 1, but midterms kept me busy (so i added the last 2 or so lines in the beginning)


End file.
